The writer makes a valid point, but it’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like Jez has sponsored this article with his inheritance from Aunt Gwen as it glorifies “the creatives” sponging off everyone else, a la Jez.
What-a-load -of-***… highlight and summary:
“Some people (myself included) really are lazy by disposition, but this doesn’t mean they deserve to live in poverty.”
> As I was watching, it occurred to me that the life that Jeremy leads is no longer possible. I understand that Peep Show is a sitcom, rather than a Ken Loach film, and the situations it portrays may have been unrealistic at the time it was written. But as a work of social satire, it was surely responding to something. Jeremy must have been a recognisable archetype.
I…..really don’t think it was, and I don’t think much has changed in the stakes of “Freeloading off my working mate in a crappy flat”
I’m guessing Mr Greig is quite young and is now jealous for a made up sitcom, which is utterly bizarre.
> A Jeremy-like lifestyle should be available not only to the Jeremys of the world, but to anyone who wants it.
And it is, but I’m not fucking paying for it. They’ll have to figure that bit out themselves.
Sleeping in BigMadAndy’s bin bag was truly a Utopian Fantasy!
There’s a lot of focus specifically about the dole in the comments here, but there’s a wider point to be made here about how a lot of nineties and noughties sitcoms depict a lifestyle that was supposed to be mundane or even dystopian rather than glamorous or aspirational, but is now unattainable for the post-recession generation.
Maybe when we’ve automated more of society we could do that, but I don’t see it otherwise working in the modern world.
What a shit article. There was never a point in time where having a nest egg and a friend to mooch off was the norm. It’s just as possible now as it’s ever been.
Can’t believe the article spends so much time talking about Jeremy’s lifestyle being impossible in todays world. What about marks? A single income and he owns his own flat IN LONDON and is financially stable. He has a mate who lives with him who barely pays money towards stuff and it never causes Mark any issues. If that was set in 2022, the front room would also be a bedroom and there would be 3 full time professionals renting the flat paying thousands to some wanker of a landlord, all working inner city jobs and all poor as fuck!
Imagine bemoaning that it’s now harder to get benefits and that some sort of commitment to finding work is needed 😂
Perhaps it’s worth taking a look at where the rich are getting their money from to sit around doing nothing: by ripping off the rest of us!
Mmm, delicious Cumberland final straw, dripping in onion gravy.
In my utopia they only serve organic scrumpy at the Swann and Paedo.
urgh, this article …… why are people like this
I was always puzzled by how socially awkward nerd mark sleeps with so many people.
That’s a stupid article. Jeremy manages to survive only on benefits! (and an inheritance and ongoing financial support from his family and flatmate)
It’s always interesting to see the frothing rage people get themselves into when someone states the opinion “I don’t actually want to work, and if given the opportunity I wouldn’t. As a society we should aim for less work time and more leisure time”
Why does people admitting they don’t want to work make people so angry? Surely we all agree with not wanting to work to at least some extent.
This author is definitely a member of the anti-growth coalition!
We had the long 90s until 2007/2008. Then a mix of social media, recession and 12 years of Tory rule have left us here.
I took UC for a few months during 2020 and never had to prove that i was actively looking for work, go to training etc. Was it just easier during covid?
I knew several people who signed on at 18 and have remained on benefits ever since. Without exception, they are obese, balding and miserable with nothing to their name and nothing to look forward to but a bag of weed and whatever video game they’re wasting their lives on that week. Peep show is fiction. The reality of living on the dole is not enviable at all. I had to sign off for a year when I was relearning to walk and it was the most horrible, rewardless existence imaginable. I work hard and the idea of just doing as I please while a stipend rolls in is tempting sometimes, but I know from experience and from others around me that it’s no way to live.
It’s also worth noting that while this is true for London and the SE, professionals could choose to live in any other city and live a normal life in thier own homes with practically the same income in almost all lines of work (excluding finance, who seem to be OK with 800k flats anyhow) please look farther afield for your work life balance, what’s up with Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Stoke, MK, Swindon, Southampton, Cardiff. People seem to be London zone 1-4 or nothing. Your mad.
No comment on the article itself, but I’m disappointed the post tag naan count is incorrect.
22 comments
The writer makes a valid point, but it’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like Jez has sponsored this article with his inheritance from Aunt Gwen as it glorifies “the creatives” sponging off everyone else, a la Jez.
What-a-load -of-***… highlight and summary:
“Some people (myself included) really are lazy by disposition, but this doesn’t mean they deserve to live in poverty.”
> As I was watching, it occurred to me that the life that Jeremy leads is no longer possible. I understand that Peep Show is a sitcom, rather than a Ken Loach film, and the situations it portrays may have been unrealistic at the time it was written. But as a work of social satire, it was surely responding to something. Jeremy must have been a recognisable archetype.
I…..really don’t think it was, and I don’t think much has changed in the stakes of “Freeloading off my working mate in a crappy flat”
I’m guessing Mr Greig is quite young and is now jealous for a made up sitcom, which is utterly bizarre.
> A Jeremy-like lifestyle should be available not only to the Jeremys of the world, but to anyone who wants it.
And it is, but I’m not fucking paying for it. They’ll have to figure that bit out themselves.
Sleeping in BigMadAndy’s bin bag was truly a Utopian Fantasy!
There’s a lot of focus specifically about the dole in the comments here, but there’s a wider point to be made here about how a lot of nineties and noughties sitcoms depict a lifestyle that was supposed to be mundane or even dystopian rather than glamorous or aspirational, but is now unattainable for the post-recession generation.
Maybe when we’ve automated more of society we could do that, but I don’t see it otherwise working in the modern world.
What a shit article. There was never a point in time where having a nest egg and a friend to mooch off was the norm. It’s just as possible now as it’s ever been.
Can’t believe the article spends so much time talking about Jeremy’s lifestyle being impossible in todays world. What about marks? A single income and he owns his own flat IN LONDON and is financially stable. He has a mate who lives with him who barely pays money towards stuff and it never causes Mark any issues. If that was set in 2022, the front room would also be a bedroom and there would be 3 full time professionals renting the flat paying thousands to some wanker of a landlord, all working inner city jobs and all poor as fuck!
Imagine bemoaning that it’s now harder to get benefits and that some sort of commitment to finding work is needed 😂
Perhaps it’s worth taking a look at where the rich are getting their money from to sit around doing nothing: by ripping off the rest of us!
Mmm, delicious Cumberland final straw, dripping in onion gravy.
In my utopia they only serve organic scrumpy at the Swann and Paedo.
urgh, this article …… why are people like this
I was always puzzled by how socially awkward nerd mark sleeps with so many people.
That’s a stupid article. Jeremy manages to survive only on benefits! (and an inheritance and ongoing financial support from his family and flatmate)
It’s always interesting to see the frothing rage people get themselves into when someone states the opinion “I don’t actually want to work, and if given the opportunity I wouldn’t. As a society we should aim for less work time and more leisure time”
Why does people admitting they don’t want to work make people so angry? Surely we all agree with not wanting to work to at least some extent.
This author is definitely a member of the anti-growth coalition!
We had the long 90s until 2007/2008. Then a mix of social media, recession and 12 years of Tory rule have left us here.
I took UC for a few months during 2020 and never had to prove that i was actively looking for work, go to training etc. Was it just easier during covid?
I knew several people who signed on at 18 and have remained on benefits ever since. Without exception, they are obese, balding and miserable with nothing to their name and nothing to look forward to but a bag of weed and whatever video game they’re wasting their lives on that week. Peep show is fiction. The reality of living on the dole is not enviable at all. I had to sign off for a year when I was relearning to walk and it was the most horrible, rewardless existence imaginable. I work hard and the idea of just doing as I please while a stipend rolls in is tempting sometimes, but I know from experience and from others around me that it’s no way to live.
It’s also worth noting that while this is true for London and the SE, professionals could choose to live in any other city and live a normal life in thier own homes with practically the same income in almost all lines of work (excluding finance, who seem to be OK with 800k flats anyhow) please look farther afield for your work life balance, what’s up with Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Stoke, MK, Swindon, Southampton, Cardiff. People seem to be London zone 1-4 or nothing. Your mad.
No comment on the article itself, but I’m disappointed the post tag naan count is incorrect.